Diane Sawyer talks to Frank Dileo- 2004

Diane: From a man that has seen him and has seen him up close for many years. Frank Dileo managed the King Of Pop career at the height of his reign in fact Jackson called him my other half, my shield of armor.

But then one day, Jackson fired him without warning, not unprecedented in the music world I guess but this morning Frank Dileo joins us to speak the first time on television about Michael Jackson and the charges against him and it’s really good to have you with us.

Frank: Thank you very much.

Diane: Again to get a sense, you spent in the time you were with him 1984-1989 60 days apart from and that’s all?

Frank: Yeah, we might have spent only 60 days apart we only 4,5,6 streets from each other in Encino and uh, we worked together everyday, went on tour together and we were in constant contact everyday, every moment.

Diane: So, wasn’t the first time charges have been talked about, when you heard this latest round though, were you surprised?

Frank: Yeah, I was surprised, then after I saw the press conference with the DA and the Sheriff, I got very, angry because I think that they are looking to make a big deal out this because I don’t think he’s guilty.

Diane: You don’t think he’s guilty?

Frank: No, I don’t think he guilty. I think he’s guilty in the press and I think he’s eccentric at times but all very creative people are eccentric at times, there’s no two ways about that.

Diane: But at one point had said sometime ago in 2000, January 2000 you said and it’s quoted in the Daily News that his behavior with kids Quote: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW YORK DAILY NEWS JANUARY 10, 2000 “it’s was very strange behavior, and I turned a blind eye….Maybe that was wrong.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frank: Yeah, and what I meant by that was, that I turned a blind eye to the fact that I should have taken him and sat him down and said listen, this looks really improper to other people, I know that you are not doing anything, you know that you are not doing anything but there are other people that thinks this is not right and it looks bad and I might have prevented some of his problem if I were to have taken a harder hand at it.

Diane: But surly people around him had said that to him, surly people or do people not talk to him that way?

Frank: No, people don’t talk to him that way. I think I might have been the last person that was very blunt and honest with him about a lot of things.

Diane: Why don’t they, what is his hold on the people that are around him who, who are afraid of him.

Frank: Well, Diane you are a celebrity and I am sure that there are a lot of people who don’t tell you exactly what they want to say. They get caught up in the fact that this person is a star and they are making millions of dollars off him.

Diane: Let me ask you some specifics because you saw Neverland and you saw the whole way he lives. The private bedroom, that we hear about where he can take children and in fact where apparently at one point or the other he did slept next to the bed or whatever. Where you in that private bedroom or did you ever see anything that raise any concern.

Frank: No, I never -- I’ve been into the bedroom, because he brought that right as he fired me. OK, so I was in there, but that private room was there when he brought it. It was more like a safe room. And I never saw anything that looked like it was trying to attract kids in there or anything, it’s just a little room.

Diane: And this whole idea that he built barriers so that nobody that worked with him could come in when he didn’t want you to come in that lots of occasions…

Frank: Never saw that, I never saw that. I can tell you that when he lived on Hayvenhurst, I had a key to his private room as I did on tour, all of his suites and I walked in and out as necessary.

Diane: On the 60 Minutes interview, when you heard him talk again about sleeping with children as being natural thing . You heard him continue to reassert that he is going to keep doing it and he doesn’t see anything wrong with it.

Frank: What I took from it was this: He didn’t say he slept in the bed under the covers, never has. He has said he has been in the room, slept maybe on the couch or the floor and has given his bed to other people – wait – but he also is saying to you not going to stop. I am not hiding anything, you know you are telling me not to do something and I am not doing it anyway.

Diane: Why did he fire you?

Frank: Why did he fire me? That’s a good question, but I think it was ah, ah, he fired me because it was politically asked of him. There was an outside record executive with a big time lawyer and one executive at Sony who would like to see Michael’s power cut in half. And by getting rid of me was half the power.

Diane: And if there is one thing that you can say about him that you think that we don’t know we’ve have never been around him in private moments what is the one thing that would surprise us the most about Michael Jackson you saw.

Frank: He’s a very, very charitable person that wouldn’t harm anybody and that’s what is unfair. The tabloid press and cable companies they have him convicted and on his way to prison and that shouldn’t be. That trial should be fought in court with lawyers not on TV. He’s given away more money then people can understand. And those people are the ones that are going to loose out on this. I’d say he gave with me, he has gave away about $12 Million dollars I saw him given away, and who knows what he has given away since.